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Making Money Online with Internet-Specific Jobs

One development that has come with the advent of the Internet is the great ease with which countless individuals of highly varied backgrounds and capabilities are able to earn money by working online. Due to the nature of the Internet, there is a wide variety of jobs that can only be performed on the Internet, and can therefore be done at home from a personal computer.

For a variety of reasons, many people have always preferred or been forced to (by circumstances) stay home for the vast majority of the day. These are not career professionals or anything like that; they are stay at home parents, caretakers, students, and the like. These people still have a strong desire to make some cash with their spare time, but they do not want to subject themselves to the drudgery of a part- time job at a convenience store or fast food restaurant.

There are also plenty of career professionals that have some extra time to themselves after 5 PM every day. Rather than waste it, they figure that it would not hurt to earn some extra cash. Just as with those that stay at home, these professionals do not want to earn minimum wage doing a job that they would hate.

The solution for all of these people has become online jobs. These jobs allow an individual to work whatever hours they want at a rate that often depends on how much they get done, not just how long they sit at a desk. The rates are often better than minimum wage, and everyone loves the convenience of being able to work from anywhere that they can access the Internet

Another great aspect of Internet-specific jobs is that they offer a wide variety of options for the wide variety of people looking to work. No matter what an individual’s interests and personality are, they should be able to find something online that particularly suits them. That way, everyone is making money doing things that they can at least tolerate, if not enjoy.

“Body” jobs are so called because all that they require is a warm body. That is to say, almost anyone with a basic understanding of the world around them, the computer, and the Internet is capable of performing the job adequately. Often, these jobs pay based on performance, so the more capable the individual is, the more money they will make. This allows for the possibility of any level of competence for an employee. People with a lot of skills can work and make a lot of money, and people with fewer skills can still work, just for less money.

One popular “body” job is online survey completion. Before I discuss this work, I have to give a warning: there is an incredibly high rate of scams among online survey offers. The vast majority of job offers for survey taking are really aimed at gaining confidential information or stealing money. When looking for a survey-taking job, use common sense to avoid scams. Never pay an upfront fee and do your research on the position before inquiring or giving any personal information.

Online survey completion is exactly what it sounds like: you get paid to complete surveys online. Companies often need people to answer marketing surveys that will advise the company on how to operate. They pay a nominal fee per survey, and then they just need people to take them: you. The surveys take a varying amount of time, but typically last between 5-30 minutes. You can expect to make up to $15 for each survey. The work is easy and the money is pretty good.

Similar to survey taking, companies also need people to try their products. Often, companies will send out free samples and request feedback. However, sometimes they will offer compensation for detailed review of their product. This is a two-fold win if you are selected: you get a free product and get paid to use it. Unfortunately, this type of online job is relatively rare.

Another type of “body” job is online question answering. A good example of this is ChaCha, an online service. ChaCha will allow anyone to send in a question via text message and receive an answer to the question free of charge. They earn their money from advertising. To get the questions answered, they pay individuals to look up an accurate and quick response. The questions are typically easy to answer, and pay either $0.10 or $0.20. Most employees can expect to earn between $7.50 – $12.00 per hour.

One of the (potentially) most profitable forms of online employment is writing. There is an enormous amount of information on the Internet, and all of it had to be inputted manually by people like you. One of the writing jobs that people are most familiar with is blogger.

Many websites offer money to people to write a blog online. The blog can focus on just about anything. The idea is that the blog either brings people in to a bigger website that profits from them, or makes money directly from visitors via advertising. Either way, the company does not have to do any work and can just shave some profit off of whatever they pay you.

All that you have to do to be a blogger is have some experience and/or interest in something. For instance, a sports equipment retailer may want to add a blog to their website to attract visitors. They will look for someone online that likes sports and can talk about them extensively. They will then pay that person to write two or three blog entries per week about sports. The pay depends largely upon the website that is hiring the blogger, but it is generally fairly profitable.

Another common writing job is article writing. The idea behind this is very similar to blog writing: a website will pay someone to write articles that will then appear on a website. The difference is that the articles will generally be informative and offer some educational value to visitors. The result is the same: users will come to the website and earn revenue for the website owners.

Writing articles works almost exactly like writing blog entries. However, generally a little more extensive knowledge is required for articles, as they are longer and more varied. As such, they do pay a little better. The rate can vary greatly, but will generally be 1-2 articles per week.

A little known form of online writing is copy writing. Copy writers write all of the filler text that you see on websites. This text is not particularly informative or useful, but needs to be there for appearances and transitions. As such, it does not take any particular knowledge to write, just a pretty strong affinity for writing.

Copy writing generally pays by the word, and can be remarkably lucrative. There is also quite a bit more copy writing work, as all websites need a fair bit of copy writing to appear nice.

Customer service is a traditional job that is moving more and more online. Everyone is familiar with customer service: when you call the cable company to find out why your TV is not working, you wait on the phone for 30 minutes before being connected with a person who may or may not be able to help you.

As you might expect, being a customer service representative does not require a great deal of expertise. Also, since the customer is only hearing your voice, there is no reason for a customer service representative to be located in any particular place or be dressed in any particular way. That is why customer service is moving to the realm of the Internet

Online customer service work can actually play remarkably well. It is generally fairly large companies that are looking for customer service representatives, so they may offer competitive wages and even, potentially, benefits. The down side to this is that it works much like a normal salaried job. Hours are not as flexible; you report directly to a manager; and you are competing with co-workers for positions, raises, and recognition.

An up side to online customer service is that it is one of the most reliable sources of income online. You do not need to do the job particularly well, you just have to be available when you are supposed to be. Pay checks will come in regularly and you do not have to worry about a shortage of work. Basically, online customer service jobs are just like traditional jobs, except that they pay a little less and they allow you to work from the comfort of your home.

In summary, there are numerous types of jobs online that offer different aspects for different kinds of people. No matter what type of personality you have, chances are that you will be able to find some kind of work online that matches you perfectly. It may take some time to get started with online work, but once you are immersed in the online job market, you will find it easier and easier to make a pretty good living just by working online in your spare time.